Generally, implants, particularly, dental implants, are embedded in jaw bones to be substituted for the function of teeth. In a dental implant operation, it is important to reliably fuse a dental implant to a jaw bone (for osseointegration). To achieve this purpose, for example, a technique of applying ultraviolet rays to dental implants and removing organic contaminants from the dental implants was proposed in Japanese Patent No. 3072373 (Patent document 1) and described in paragraph 0009 of the document.
However, the technique disclosed in this document was proposed merely theoretically, and the detailed construction of a device to embody the technique was not proposed.
With regard to a dental implant operation, after the process of applying ultraviolet rays to a dental implant and removing organic contaminants therefrom has been completed, the dental implant must be used in the dental implant operation as soon as possible to prevent the dental implant from being recontaminated by organic contaminants.
Therefore, it is necessary to be able to easily and smoothly put implants into an ultraviolet irradiation device or take them out of it, and to reliably prevent the implants from being recontaminated after the ultraviolet irradiation process has finished.
To date, a small and simple device for removing organic contaminants from implants while preventing recontamination of the implants has not been put to practical use.